ScienceBlog.com

A new study presented today at the 159th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in Toronto, Canada identified five predictors for bipolar disorder risk in patients who have been unsuccessfully treated with antidepressants. Researchers concluded that significant risk factors of bipolar disorder among patients already diagnosed with major depression were anxiety, feelings of people being unfriendly, family history of bipolar disorder, a recent diagnosis of depression, and legal problems.

New evidence that individual differences in human sexual desire can be attributed to genetic variations has been revealed by a research group headed by a professor of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The findings are believed to have an impact on people’s understanding of their own sexuality as well as to how sexual disorders may come to be treated in the future.

As the world marks the 25th year since the first diagnosed case of AIDS, groundbreaking research by scientists at Florida State University has produced remarkable three-dimensional images of the virus and the protein spikes on its surface that allow it to bind and fuse with human immune cells. Findings from this AIDS research could boost the development of vaccines that will thwart infection by targeting and crippling the sticky HIV-1 spike proteins.

It is difficult to define the ATC code of a drug in development – in most cases you are not sure about the mode of action or the generic that is hidden behind it. Most pharmaceutical pipeline providers don’t do it. There is one I found recently that actually has assigned probable ATC for drug in development

http://www.chartsbank.com/PipelineList.aspx

Patrick Forterre claims he can trace the origin of DNA by studying replication enzymes in modern viruses, some of which are similar to the chemistry used by higher life, and some of which are unique to viruses. Two other virtues of this theory:

* That viruses have an immediate fitness benefit from substituting DNA for RNA (a way to escape the host’s defenses), while for cells, the switch to DNA offers only long-term benefits, so it evolves with more difficulty.

* That viruses evolve more nimbly than other organisms, because their reproductive cycle is so rapid and their survival ratio so low.

Despite lack of a key component of the immune system, a line of genetically engineered mice can control chronic herpes virus infections, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. Scientists can’t prove it yet, but they suspect the missing immune system component, a group of molecules known as the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Class Ia, has a previously unrecognized backup that is similar enough to step in and fill the void left by its absence. If so, that backup may become a new focus for efforts to design antiviral vaccines.

It may seem trivial for scientists to to look for a medical solution for happiness, but the search might produce neurological relief of physical pain.

October 2005: An earthquake devastates rural Pakistan. Winter quickly descends on the mountainous region, leaving many victims without shelter in the bitter cold. In early January, Dr. Azhar Rafiq, a researcher and physician for a NASA Research Partnership Center in Virginia, returns to his homeland to help. He brings with him medical monitoring technology — known as “telemedicine” — developed for the space program.

A pilot study suggests that a drug used to ease symptoms of alcohol and drug addiction may also bring relief to people with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory disorder of the intestine that affects an estimated 500,000 Americans.

Male murderers with stereotypically ”black-looking” features are more than twice as likely to get the death sentence than lighter-skinned African American defendants found guilty of killing a white person, Stanford researchers have found. The relationship between physical appearance and the death sentence disappears, however, when both murderers and their victims are black.

The nano world is getting brighter. Nanowires made of semiconductor materials are being used to make prototype lasers and light-emitting diodes with emission apertures roughly 100 nm in diameter–about 50 times narrower than conventional counterparts. Nanolight sources may have many applications, including “lab on a chip” devices for identifying chemicals and biological agents, scanning-probe microscope tips for imaging objects smaller than is currently possible, or ultra-precise tools for laser surgery and electronics manufacturing.

While the Internet can help people find the medical information they otherwise might not, AOL is proving it can also do more harm than good.

The “rhythm method” may kill off more embryos than other contraceptive methods, such as coils, morning after pills, and oral contraceptives, suggests an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics. The method relies on abstinence during the most fertile period of a woman’s menstrual cycle. For a woman who has regular 28 day cycles, this is around days 10 to 17 of the cycle.

More than 1,000 people packed into the Geneva’s Basilique Notre-Dame for the funeral of Lee Jong-wook, Director-General of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), paying tribute to a man praised for his passion for his work and his kindness to his fellow human beings. “One of the last things he did was, on Friday night, to rush out and buy a take-away Chinese meal for two staff who were working late,” the head of Dr. Lee’s office, Bill Kean, told the mourners at yesterday’s ceremony.

Scientists at Duke and Rutgers universities have developed a mathematical framework they say will enable astronomers to test a new five-dimensional theory of gravity that competes with Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Charles R. Keeton of Rutgers and Arlie O. Petters of Duke base their work on a recent theory called the type II Randall-Sundrum braneworld gravity model. The theory holds that the visible universe is a membrane (hence “braneworld”) embedded within a larger universe, much like a strand of filmy seaweed floating in the ocean. The “braneworld universe” has five dimensions — four spatial dimensions plus time — compared with the four dimensions — three spatial, plus time — laid out in the General Theory of Relativity.

The USDA and the State of Florida are covering up a very serious national health issue affecting the very food we eat – especially going to our school children and into our supermarkets!

An inexpensive detector developed by a NASA-led team can now see invisible infrared light in a range of “colors,” or wavelengths. The detector, called a Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) array, was the world’s largest (one million-pixel) infrared array when the project was announced in March 2003. It was a low-cost alternative to conventional infrared detector technology for a wide range of scientific and commercial applications.

A case involving seven transplant recipients killed by a rodent-borne virus that they apparently acquired from donated and infected human organs has prompted a recommendation that regulatory authorities require suppliers of pet rodents to screen their colonies for the virus.